Courts must respect confidential nature of arbitration when third parties involved

The confidentiality provisions of an arbitration agreement often come into conflict with the open court principle. Parties enter into commercial arbitrations with the expectation that the process will remain confidential, only to later find themselves embroiled in litigation before the courts with a party that was not part of the ring of confidentiality that surrounded the arbitration and that is requesting immediate production of these documents.

In a context where the rules mandate the production of the confidential arbitration information, the courts must allow the confidential...